Twelve Shisuis surrounded the solitary Tōru like petals enclosing a flower’s center.
All of them carried the exact same presence and performed the exact same movements.
Their perfectly synchronized, gentle smiles were enough to send chills down one’s spine.
Tōru’s eyes scanned their bodies one by one, falling into profound confusion.
Through the Transparent World, Sasuke’s basic Clone Technique was merely a thin layer of neutral chakra—in other words, an illusion.
Itachi’s Shadow Clone, on the other hand, was a tangible entity with a chakra pathway system.
As long as a Shadow Clone stored enough chakra, it could even perform ninjutsu.
But the twelve Shisuis standing before Tōru were made of an extremely condensed mass of green chakra, identical in color to the ocular power within Shisui’s Sharingan.
These clones had no chakra pathways, yet they were by no means fragile illusions that would shatter at the slightest touch.
They were strange existences somewhere between reality and illusion.
Furthermore, the real Shisui—the Uchiha with actual internal organs—was constantly switching places among these clones.
Tōru finally understood why the Shisui he had dragged underwater earlier had clearly been a living person with intact internal organs, only to become an illusion the next moment.
He could switch positions with the clones he created at any time!
Meanwhile, Shisui, who had noticed that Tōru’s eyes remained fixed on his true body, was equally astonished.
[Tōru can locate my real body?] The moment that thought occurred to him, he immediately wanted to test it.
So he began switching positions among his clones even faster.
Yet Tōru was like a spectator tracking a ping-pong ball from the stands, his gaze firmly following Shisui’s every movement.
The hypothesis was confirmed!
This was essentially a ninjutsu-based version of the Body Flicker Technique!
Shisui had created it after drawing inspiration from the Fourth Hokage’s Flying Raijin Technique.
He felt a little frustrated.
Even Root’s sensory shinobi couldn’t locate his true body within this technique.
Yet Tōru had figured it out the very first time he’d seen it.
Could the technique he’d always been so proud of really have a flaw that even a child could discover?
At that moment, a damp sea breeze swept across them.
The overlapping sound of the waves grew louder as the gloomy sky began to rain, slightly blurring everyone’s silhouettes.
But this also meant that Tōru, who had already possessed the advantage of favorable terrain, now had the advantage of favorable weather as well.
Using Water Release had become even easier.
Uchiha Shisui took a deep breath.
“Although it looks like both heaven and earth are on your side, Tōru, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to figure out how to counter this technique.” Shisui smiled slyly.
“Now, let’s begin.” The countdown in Uchiha Madara’s eyes had already reached sixty seconds.
[I have to deal with these clones within one minute…] Tōru made up his mind.
[Otherwise, if the environment changes to somewhere unsuitable for Water Breathing…] Before he could think any further, all of Shisui’s clones moved at once, swarming toward Tōru.
[All of them attacking together?
Perfect…] Tōru calmly judged the distance between himself and the clones.
He raised the Water Blade above his head and let out a powerful shout.
“Hah—!” Half of the chakra in his body surged into the Water Blade.
The blade then crashed down toward the sea beneath Tōru like a mountain hurled down by a god.
“Water Breathing, Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin!” With a deafening explosion, a colossal wave fifty meters high erupted.
Tōru and all the surrounding Shisui clones were completely swallowed by the enormous wall of water.
Even Itachi, watching from far away, was caught in the attack.
His entire body was drenched by countless droplets.
The high collar of his long sleeves was blown backward by the shockwave, pressing tightly against his chin.
His trousers ballooned like sails in the gale.
Even with chakra firmly anchoring his feet to the hair on Uchiha Madara’s statue, Itachi was still forced two steps backward before regaining his balance.
A deep gravity filled his eyes.
[The scale of this explosion is several times greater than that Water Dragon Bullet from before.] He wiped the seawater from his face.
[A single attack like that would already be enough to destroy the Hokage Building.] The ocean provided far too great an advantage to a Water Release prodigy like Tōru.
Not telling Father about Tōru’s Water Release talent had definitely been the right decision.
However, Itachi also understood that no matter how destructive the attack was, the Five Basic Nature Transformations couldn’t possibly threaten Shisui’s clones.
[Because those clones are fundamentally creations of the Sharingan’s ocular power—in other words, Yin Release chakra.] Below Uchiha Madara’s statue, broad streams of transparent water surged upward, carrying countless white bubbles.
They looked like waterfalls flowing backward from the sea into the sky.
With tremendous impact and pressure, they engulfed every one of Shisui’s clones.
Their fate should have been no different from someone being struck directly by the waterfall of the Valley of the End.
Even if they weren’t shattered instantly, they should at least have been blasted far away.
Yet to Tōru’s surprise, every single clone emerged from the wall of water completely unharmed.
They weren’t breaking through the waves.
They simply walked through them as though there were nothing there.
The water didn’t even part around their bodies.
It was as though the flowing water simply passed directly through them.
Every Shisui wore the same crescent-eyed smile.
None of them was the real body.
[What’s happening?
Is ninjutsu ineffective against his clones?] Tōru’s expression remained as calm as still water, but his mind was filled with possibilities.
“That’s an impressive ninjutsu, Tōru.” After praising him, one of Shisui’s clones suddenly dove toward Tōru and thrust its sword toward his abdomen.
This clone’s speed was only around two-thirds that of the real Shisui.
Tōru simply stepped to the right and dodged it with ease.
The instant the clone entered his attack range, Tōru jumped and drove his knee toward its chin.
But something unexpected happened.
He passed straight through the clone’s body as though it weren’t there.
[Taijutsu is ineffective too?] Tōru was deeply puzzled.
[Are these clones simply impossible to attack?] [But their attacks against me just now were completely real.] “Confused?” Shisui said.
“But you’re still able to remain calm.
That’s good.” Among all the opponents who had encountered his Body Flicker technique for the first time, Tōru’s performance was by far the most commendable.
Before Tōru could understand what was happening, two more clones attacked him from both sides.
The clone Tōru had just passed through also turned around and launched another slash.
Tōru lowered his body and dodged the attacks from both sides before turning around and blocking the clone behind him.
Clang!
The weapons collided.
This time, the resistance was completely real.
[It’s tangible again?] Tōru’s confusion wasn’t resolved.
If anything, it deepened.
He even wondered whether he had fallen under a genjutsu.
But when he checked the chakra inside his head, everything was normal.
These clones were indeed formed from the Sharingan’s ocular power.
But they weren’t as simple as ordinary illusions.
[Shisui must have drawn inspiration from the Nara Clan’s Shadow Imitation Technique.
By using the extraordinary Yin Release chakra control of the Mangekyō Sharingan, he can make these clones exist simultaneously between reality and illusion.
They only become tangible when attacking an opponent.] Watching from above, Itachi shook his head slightly.
He wondered if Shisui was being a little too unfair by revealing his signature technique so quickly.
Shouldn’t he have used some Fire Release or Wind Release first, allowing Tōru to become accustomed to ninjutsu and learn how to deal with it?
Clearly, he’d suffered a setback in taijutsu and was now trying to recover his pride by overwhelming Tōru with his signature technique.
[As expected, even the gentlest member of the Uchiha Clan is still unwilling to admit defeat.] At that moment, all of Shisui’s clones joined the battle.
Tōru could only rely on his reaction speed to defend himself while secretly searching for a solution.
As the Water Hashira, he was absolutely calm in battle.
There was no doubt about that.
First, locating the real body was meaningless.
Shisui’s true body constantly switched among the clones.
Rather than being a weakness, it was actually bait.
The clones only possessed “mass” and a physical “body” when attacking Tōru and attempting to inflict actual damage.
The moment Tōru tried to counterattack, they immediately became intangible phantoms.
Unless…
Unless Tōru could guarantee that he struck the clone at the exact instant it attacked him—that fleeting moment when it became tangible.
Then he could kill it.
But the speed at which the clones switched between tangible and intangible states was simply too fast.
Even the Transparent World couldn’t capture the precise opening.
Countless ninja swords surrounded Tōru.
Some stabbed.
Some thrust.
Some swept.
Others slashed.
Defending against all of them already consumed every bit of his concentration.
The moment he focused on a single clone, another would immediately cut him open.
This was the classic problem of being overwhelmed by numbers.
Unless— Tōru pursed his lips.
The Water Blade in his hand suddenly lengthened.
He swung it in a rough circular slash, knocking aside the weapons attacking him.
Even so, one attack slipped through and cut open his flank.
Thanks to his precise control, however, it didn’t damage his kidney.
The fine control provided by the Transparent World also allowed him to temporarily stop the bleeding.
At last, he had bought himself a brief moment to use a Breathing Form, at the cost of taking a wound.
“Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance!” A wave surged beneath Tōru’s feet and carried him violently toward several of the clones ahead.
With the Water Blade leading the way, the clones didn’t attack.
Tōru passed straight through their bodies without surprise.
He then began gliding rapidly across the surface of the sea.
But he didn’t travel in a straight line.
He occasionally changed direction, brushing past the bodies of the phantoms one after another before turning and racing toward the distant sea.
[Something similar to Water Release: Water Surface Riding?] “Running away from an enemy you can’t defeat isn’t a bad choice.” Shisui praised him in one moment.
But in the next, his tone changed.
“But that won’t work against me!” The moment his voice fell, every clone used the Body Flicker Technique and pursued him.
In an instant, they appeared dozens of meters away beside Tōru.
Then the chase began.
[Even his ordinary Body Flicker Technique has been honed to an extreme level.] Itachi also felt that fleeing wasn’t a good strategy.
A shinobi’s mastery of the Body Flicker Technique could be judged by the distance they could cover in a single instant.
For an ordinary Jōnin, such as his mother, the effective range of the Body Flicker Technique was roughly ten meters.
Shisui’s Body Flicker, however, rivaled that of his idol, the Fourth Hokage.
He could instantly cross more than thirty meters and often subdue an enemy almost simultaneously with his Body Flicker.
The clones were somewhat weaker than the original, but they were still stronger than ordinary Jōnin.
[Tōru is almost at his limit…] Itachi made his assessment, his anxiety growing.
He didn’t know how Shisui would treat Tōru after his defeat in order to teach him just how cruel the shinobi world could be.
Below, Tōru felt the threat approaching from behind as he raced across the water.
He suddenly turned around.
The instant one of the clones attacked him, his eyes finally transformed.
They became violet-red.
Two single tomoe spun rapidly like windmills.
The Sharingan enhanced his vision.
Everything before his eyes slowed down even further.
Now, the brief interval in which Shisui’s clones switched between tangible and intangible states finally became discernible.
Tōru thrust his Water Blade forward.
Using nothing but taijutsu, he unleashed the fastest technique among all his Forms— Water Breathing, Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust!
Whoosh!
Following the sharp whistle of the blade cutting through the air, the Water Blade pierced through the clone’s body just as it was preparing to become intangible.
The clone’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Then its body instantly dissolved into nothingness.
“Success?!” Itachi abruptly grabbed one of the quills of Uchiha Madara’s statue to keep himself from losing his balance in shock.
“Did he break Shisui’s Body Flicker technique?” He muttered to himself.
He felt an electric current run from his spine to his scalp, as though one of his most deeply rooted assumptions had suddenly been shattered.
He soon calmed down.
Shisui had only lost one clone.
Tōru’s situation hadn’t improved all that much.
Itachi believed that Tōru would eventually be able to completely decipher Shisui’s Body Flicker technique.
But certainly not today.
Yet to his surprise, after landing his first successful strike, Tōru seemed to gain tremendous confidence.
He suddenly turned around and raced back.
Riding the waves, he began weaving through the pursuing clones.
He moved between them like a butterfly dancing among flowers, deliberately luring Shisui’s clones into attacking him.
Meanwhile, the number in Uchiha Madara’s eyes had fallen to less than ten seconds.
“What is he…” The real Shisui, concealed among the clones, noticed that Tōru was deliberately weaving between them.
His movements left elegant, beautiful trails of water across the sea.
During the process, relying on his exceptional dynamic vision, Tōru killed another clone.
[He wants to divide us and eliminate us one by one?] Shisui roughly understood Tōru’s plan.
He immediately ordered all the clones to gather together.
But he failed to notice that all of them had also become surrounded by the intersecting trails of water.
Tōru seemed to have completely abandoned the possibility of winning the spar.
He rode the waves and launched a suicidal charge against Shisui’s remaining clones.
[Because time is almost up, he’s given up?] Shisui smiled slightly.
All the clones attacked simultaneously.
This time, Tōru made no attempt to counterattack.
His icy eyes stared coldly ahead.
It seemed to confirm Shisui’s prediction.
Tōru would be overwhelmed and killed by the swarm in the next instant.
Until something unexpected happened.
At the instant all the clones believed victory was within their grasp, their blades had already pierced Tōru’s skin— Dozens of figures identical to Tōru suddenly burst out of the intersecting trails of water surrounding them.
They shot into the air like flying swordfish and simultaneously launched Drop Ripple Thrust at speeds too fast to react to.
The truth was that when Tōru combined chakra with Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance, every time he passed an enemy, it automatically generated a Water Clone.
Those Water Clones could hide within the trails of water he created while gliding across the sea and launch surprise attacks.
He had appeared to be simply weaving across the ocean.
In reality, he had been waiting for this moment to catch them all in one net.
After all, how could these clones have expected anything unexpected to happen when their blades had already pierced their opponent’s body?
They simply had no time to react.
[This child…
actually used his own body as bait?] More than Tōru’s strategy, it was his ruthlessness toward himself that shocked Shisui most.
He stared at the numerous wounds covering the front of Tōru’s body.
None were fatal, but the blood flowing from them was undeniably real.
Yet that handsome little face remained as cold and composed as ever.
It was as though the person who had been injured wasn’t himself at all, but someone else.
So this was what it meant to have a heart as still as water…
Uchiha Shisui had truly experienced it firsthand.
Perhaps they should have switched names.
Even knowing that this was an illusion, the sensation of pain was still real.
How could he possibly be this fearless?
If the same situation occurred in reality, would Tōru still make the same choice?
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Under the Water Clones’ surprise attack, every tangible clone formed from ocular power was destroyed before it could turn intangible.
In the end, only Shisui’s true body remained.
He was concealed at the very center, surrounded by Tōru’s Water Clones.
Their dark, hollow eyes stared at him without blinking.
At this point, the battle had completely reversed.
Shisui of the Body Flicker’s most celebrated technique had been completely deciphered.
Above them, Itachi’s lips were slightly parted.
For once, his usual composure had disappeared.
He could hardly believe his eyes.
Shisui, however, pondered for a moment before smiling.
He didn’t seem troubled in the slightest by the fact that his signature technique had been exposed.
On the contrary, he was delighted.
It was as though he’d discovered a new area in which he could improve.
The timer in Uchiha Madara’s eyes reached exactly zero.
The scenery changed.
They arrived on a barren wasteland in the Land of Wind, surrounded by endless yellow sand.
The clones simultaneously frowned.
Tōru also felt the obstruction in his Breathing Style’s circulation.
“I don’t think I have the right to praise you anymore, Tōru.” Uchiha Shisui spoke.
“You accomplished something that not even the shinobi of the Land of Water could accomplish.” His gaze swept over the countless wounds of varying depths covering Tōru’s body.
He had decided to end the battle quickly so that Tōru wouldn’t have to suffer any more pain.
“But if I’m not mistaken, you should have very little chakra left, right?” Tōru’s lips curled downward slightly.
The enormous Waterfall Basin had consumed a tremendous amount of chakra.
The more than forty Water Clones had also nearly exhausted his reserves.
And after arriving in the Land of Wind, the rate at which his Breathing Style gathered Natural Energy had slowed by more than half.
His body’s chakra production had also dropped dramatically.
He could only use a few more Forms at most.
“Looks like I was right.” Shisui smiled faintly.
He formed a seal with his left hand and lightly swept his ninja sword to the right with his right.
Fierce flames immediately wrapped around the blade.
They writhed and clawed at the air amid the howling wind.
Even the sight of them was intimidating.
This was Uchiha Style: Flame Dance, a technique that simultaneously employed Fire Release and Wind Release.
“Then let’s end this magnificent battle on the battlefield most suited to Fire Release.” ＊ Tōru’s impression of Kirigakure shinobi: Maybe they’re a little weak.
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